Tonight as we continue to report the fallout from Donald Trump's criminal indictment. We're talking to perhaps the most famous Republican in the country outside of Trump himself about the federal case against the former president. The current state of our deeply divided country and the one frame, even this bodybuilder turned movie star turned politician could not make come true. Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Schwarzenegger, welcome. It's great to talk to you again. And I want to start with the basics. Do you prefer being called governor or Arnold It makes no difference to me. I get called anything and everything. You know, when I go to Sacramento, they call me the governor and they go down to the Gold's Gym they call me Arnold and they go to Austria. The call me schnitzel or Kraut or whatever. I mean, so I get every title that you could think of. Well, to close between Arnold and schnitzel, but I think I'll go with Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Constitution said that a president has to be a natural born U.S. citizen, if not for that. Would you have run for president? Well, yes, of course. I mean, I think the field was wide open in 2016 and I think the field is open right now. I mean, think about it right now. I mean, who is there that is really a person that can bring everyone together. Who is the other day that people say, okay, he's not too old or he's not to this to do that? Or is that because it's now a question about who do you vote against rather than who do you vote for? So you're saying you would run for president in 20, 24? Absolutely. Because it's a look it's a no brainer I see so clearly how he could win the election. I mean, it's like me in California in it when I was, you know, running for governor, it was clear that people are looking for some new answer, not a right wing or a left wing, but someone that can bring the nation together. This is just so many things that need to be done and can be done. And what makes it so wonderful is because it's doable. It's all doable. All it needs is just people coming together and saying, yes, we can do it. You've put out some videos in recent years that I want to ask you about. You put out this video right after the insurrection on January 6th. Take a look Wednesday was the day of broken glass right here in the United States. The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol. President Trump is a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever. The good thing is the decision will be as irrelevant as an old tweet. Another night of broken glass or crystal knock was in 1938 when Nazi sympathizers ransacked Jewish stores and and synagogues and schools. Do you still think it's fair to compare Kristallnacht, the Nazi attack on the Jews, to what happened on January 6th? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that is of course a different time and all that. But it is kind of like a threat to democracy and a threat of what happens to people when they're lied to. And this is why I compared it to that because in Kristallnacht and to the I know with my father who was part of the Nazi Party, you know, they were lied to, they were misled. And I think a lot of people in America today are being misled. But you were wrong about Donald Trump. You said he's going to be irrelevant. He's not. In fact, he's the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. It's you know, we don't know the future. I just predicted that. But we will see. And remember, the future still goes on So we will see in the few years from now how right it was and that I cannot prove it right now. But eventually I think it will be true. I will be right now Mr. Trump has been indicted on federal charges, but most of the top Republican officials are siding with him against the special prosecutor. How do you explain that? Well, first of all, I'm not an expert in this issue. I just can tell you one thing, that if the charges are correct, then he's going to be in deep trouble. But at the same time, I have to say that, you know, we always innocent until proven guilty. So we will find out what the courts say in the future. But, I mean, if the judges are right, I think there's going to be in deep trouble. And how worried are you about the fact that he could be reelected president? I'm not worried about it because I don't think it's going to happen. I just don't think that you get reelected with 30% or 33% of the people voting for you all you need in your polls. I think that's dead. There's a great poll numbers among conservatives, but I think if you put it all together, it's not enough. You need to swing voters. You need independents. And so the question is, can you do that? I, I believe he can. In March, you put out another video about the rise of anti-Semitism in this country and around the world. Here you are there
has never been a successful movement based on hate. I mean, think about that. The Nazis losers, the Confederacy loses, the apartheid movement loses, and the list goes on and on. I don't want you to be a loser. How do you explain all the hate and what do you think it will take in the U.S. and around the world for the fever, the hate to end? I mean, people really are starving for something positive. There's just so much on social media and online out there that is negative negative, negative, negative. So, you know, I think that has an impact on people the way they feel about things. And so what I want to do is I want to pull people out of that negativism and just make them give them something positive to tell them that they're good. Tell them their training well. Tell them that they're in good shape, that there is hope for them in all of this stuff. And so I just I think this is where the action is today. And I'm always been an optimist. I always have been the positive person and yes, there's a lot of things I don't like, but it doesn't mean that I have to hate the people. And I think that's what we have to do about racial problems. That we have about, you know, gay people and all of this kind of stuff. Immigrants and Mexicans and Russians and this, we just have to go and just come together. It doesn't matter who it is, no matter how different they are and respect them as human beings and try to see their point of view. You're also deeply involved in the environment. You run
an annual conference called the Austrian World Summit. You said something interesting recently that you don't like the phrase climate change. You think it's bad marketing. What do you mean? Well, because when you talk about climate change, it's something that always is referred to as something that is going to happen down the line or it's going to gradually happen and people's minds. Our brain is not wired to respond to something down the line. So therefore, let's look at something that is really the cause of climate change, which is pollution. If we fight pollution, then everyone will get on board. But if you say climate change, the Republicans will immediately run the other way because it's one of those buzzwords that they hate. According to the World Health Organization, 7 million people a year die because of pollution, not because of climate change. Yes, there's maybe a few hundred people dying here and there because of a flood of fire or something like that. But not like pollution. So we should talk about pollution. That is what works. You are so busy these days. You are starring in a wildly popular series on Netflix, your first TV series called FUBAR, in which you play a CIA operative who's just about to retire when he's called out to help save another operative who turns out to be his daughter. Here you are. I'm a I'm a parent. Take him out Bouncing all over the place and get a shot off. You were able to hit me that was my lead from I got to say, the story's fine, but for me, the delight is seeing Arnold be Arnold again. But well, I think that it's one of those kind of great TV series that was so well-written that I could be myself I could do the humor, I could do the action, I could do the serious stuff. I mean, it gives with all the different layers. So it was just well-written. The writers were fantastic. And they did a really great job. And they promised me they're going to go and deliver to me eight scripts that are very close to the idea of True Lies. Then I believe them, and they pulled it off. Okay, you're 75 years old. You've got all the money in the world. Why on earth are you jumping around moving vehicles? Well, to be honest with you, Chris, I don't think I ever was motivated by anything that I've done because of money. It was always just because I enjoyed. I love bodybuilding and loves getting into movies and doing all the scenes. Yes. You you go and start getting more and more money because that's your value. But it's not about that. You really have to love what you're doing. So why are you doing that? I just love doing it. It's always every day, something different and I love that.
